The Trending Report: February Edition
By Janelle Cynthia
This month, your SnapChat Bitmoji hit the small screen, 117 new emojis hits your phone screen, Netflix made binging even easier, Dominos learned your name, and Kanye West moved to Wyoming.
Social
Snapchat is preparing for a global release of a new feature known as Bitmoji TV. In this feature, your Snapchat Bitmoji will take part in regularly scheduled adventures. Snapchat believes these short bits of content will help them stand out among other video platforms like YouTube and Tik Tok. Sure, Jan.
Pinterest released their top trends for February, which included hot chocolate, cozy nooks, ancient cities, and DIY painted tiles. So go ahead, build yourself a hot chocolate charcuterie board (yes that’s a thing), cozy up in your booknook to do some research on ancient Greece while a YouTube tutorial on how to hand-paint tiles plays in the background. Maximum hygge achieved.
Snapchat has launched a new ‘Ground Transformation’ AR effect, which, as it sounds, can change the ground in your Snap camera view into water or lava, or other variations.
Technology
The emoji list for 2020 was finalized this month, with 117 emojis making the final cut for release this year. Some additions include Bubble Tea, Smiling Face With Tear, bottle-feeding parents and the Transgender Flag.
Spotify is launching a new feature called songwriter pages, which allows songwriters to showcase a list of the songs they’ve written, alongside their most frequent artist collaborations.At launch, Spotify is debuting songwriter pages for top artists, including Meghan Trainor, Fraser T. Smith, Missy Elliott, Teddy Geiger, Ben Billions and Justin Tranter, among others.
Jif Peanut Butter is teaming with Giphy to launch limited-edition peanut butter jars with GIF printed across the front in an attempt to settle, once and for all, how to say the name of the looping videos shared widely across the internet. #TeamHardG
Paid, Analytics & SEO
It’s 2020 and memes still aren’t accessible to people who are blind. “It’s frustrating,” says Alex Stine, an 18-year-old recent graduate of the Kentucky School for the Blind who works in website accessibility. “When [I] come across [a meme], my screen reader reads ‘graphic.’” “I honestly can’t say I’ve ever come across any alt-text on a meme,” Stine says.
This month, Warner Bros. released Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). The title has since been shortened to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey to make it more search-friendly. Pro-tip: high-value keywords should appear toward the beginning of a title. Now, when fans of Harley Quinn type her name into the search bar, they’ll see the new movie as Google’s first suggestion.
Netflix is trying to make it easier for subscribers to keep up with what people around the country are watching by introducing a Top 10 row to its homepage. This new row — complete with its own special design — will enable you to see what is most popular on Netflix in your country. It will be updated every day and the position of the row will vary depending on how relevant the shows and films are to you.
Content Marketing
It wouldn’t be February without a roundup of the best Big Game ads. Check them out here.
In more Harley Quinn news, Burger King teamed up with Warner Bros. to create an anti-Valentine’s Day campaign to celebrate Harley Quinn’s breakup with The Joker. On Feb. 14, consumers in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston could bring a physical photo of their ex-flame and drop it in a Birds of Prey-themed breakup box in order to get a free Whopper.
Domino’s is now the place where everybody knows your name — with the tap of your mobile phone. The pizza giant teamed up with George Wendt—Norm from Cheers—for their latest commercial promoting Pie Pass, which asks people who placed online carryout orders to tap the app when they pull up to the store. Clicking “I’m here” alerts the Domino’s staff that a customer has arrived. Then, they can get the order ready and greet the customer by name.
Travel
Google released an interesting piece that follows how people plan a trip from beginning to end. #DYK? The average traveler spends 13% of their time online conducting travel-related activities.
New tourism regulations mean tourists to Amsterdam will no longer be able to take a tour of the famous red light district, in an effort to protect the area from overtourism.
Kanye West has submitted plans to the city of Cody, Wyoming to establish a prototype lab for the Yeezy brand, in a warehouse on Road 2AB. He’s said he hopes the town will be for him what Dayton, Ohio, was for the Wright brothers.
Janelle is a Project Manager with VERB Interactive — a leader in digital marketing, specializing in solutions for the travel and hospitality industry. Find out more at www.verbinteractive.com.
